the Quantity Changes file stores the details of customer, product and supplier transactions that affect product quantities. This file is associated with the product Enquiry/Quantity screen, and the details in the Product Status by Date report.
Sites that carry stock and do a substantial amount of processing may at times find that the Quantity Changes file gets extremely large, which causes certain processes of Attaché to run slower than normal. These processes include archiving data and performing a database system status check.
In order to address this issue, Attaché has the Delete Quantity Changes File utility, in order to delete old entries from this file and reduce the file size.
After deleting old records from the Quantity Changes file, you also need to run the Data Compression and Index File Optimiser utilities on the Quantity Changes file.
The larger the Quantity Changes file is, the longer the purging takes. Therefore, perform this process at a suitable time.
📌Note: After deleting the old records in the Quantity Changes file, you will no longer be able to print the Product Status by Date report for those dates or view the transactions in the product Enquiry/Quantity screen.
Before you run the Delete Quantity Changes File utility, you need to ensure that all users are logged out of the company where you are purging the Quantity Changes file.
Attaché Software recommends that you delete unwanted records regularly.
⚠️Important: Before purging the Quantity Changes file, take a backup of your data. See: Create an archive and find the archive file.
Purge the Quantity Changes file
To purge the Quantity Changes file:
Once users have been logged out and an archive has been run, choose Tools, Company, Delete Track Changes Files, Delete Quantity Changes file.
Enter the date in Transaction dates before field. Entries to the Quantity Changes file dated later than this date will not be deleted.
Click Accept (F9) and allow the utility to complete the purge of the required records.
Once the purge is completed, Run the Compress Database utility on the Quantity Changes file as per steps below.
Run the Compress Database utility on the Quantity Changes file
Go to Tools, Company, Data Checks, Compress Database.
Page Down to locate the Product Quantity Changes file under the File Description column.
Under the Compress Database column, Select the checkbox to Yes for the Product Quantity Changes file, and choose Accept (F9) to compress the file.
Once completed, run the Index File Optimiser utility on the Quantity Changes file as per the steps below.
Run the Index File Optimiser utility on the Quantity Changes File
Go to Tools, Company, Data Checks, Index File Optimiser.
Page Down to locate the Product Quantity Changes file under the File Description column.
Under the Optimise Index column, Select the checkbox to Yes for the Product Quantity Changes file, and choose Accept (F9) to compress the file.
You can now log back in to Attaché and run an archive and check the performance has improved.
Setting up Attaché to automatically purge the quantity changes file
Attaché also has the ability to set the system to automatically purge the quantity changes file. This will ensure that the number of records in the file remains small.
To set up automatic purging of quantity changes file:
Choose Tools, Company, Track Changes, Tracking Options.
Set Auto purge Quantity Changes File? check box to Yes.
Enter the age of the records (in days) to purge, then choose Accept (F9).